On November 14, 1910, Eugene Burton Ely, a civilian pilot, successfully flew a Curtiss pusher biplane off a temporary wooden platform built on the deck of the US Navy cruiser USS Birmingham in Hampton Roads, Virginia. This was the first takeoff of an airplane from a ship, a key step in the development of naval aviation. The invention of the aircraft carrier would forever change naval warfare.

This technological milestone was often discussed in poetry and prose of the era in terms of the expansion of human empire and mastery over the elements, blending the romance of the sea with the new allure of flight. It represented a new kind of dominion, one that writers began to explore in terms of the modern, mechanized human. The event resonated with poets interested in themes of power and the horizon.